{"product_id":"9780374171872","title":"Homo Irrealis : Essays","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eHomo Irrealis\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): André Aciman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e–bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eFind Me \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCall Me by Your Name \u003c\/i\u003ereturns to the essay form with his collection of thoughts on time, the creative mind, and great lives and works\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrrealis moods are a category of verbal moods that \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eindicate that certain events have not happened, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003emay never happen, or should or must or are indeed \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003edesired to happen, but for which there is no indication \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ethat they will ever happen. Irrealis moods \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eare also known as counterfactual moods and include \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe conditional, the subjunctive, the optative, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eand the imperative—all best expressed in this \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ebook as the might-be and the might-have-been. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of the great prose stylists of his generation, André Aciman returns to the essay form in \u003ci\u003eHomo Irrealis\u003c\/i\u003e to explore what time means to artists who cannot grasp life in the present. Irrealis moods are not about the present or the past or the future; they are about what might have been but never was but could in theory still happen. From meditations on subway poetry and the temporal resonances of an empty Italian street to considerations of the lives and work of Sigmund Freud, C. P. Cavafy, W. G. Sebald, John Sloan, Éric Rohmer, Marcel Proust, and Fernando Pessoa and portraits of cities such as Alexandria and St. Petersburg, \u003ci\u003eHomo Irrealis\u003c\/i\u003e is a deep reflection on the imagination’s power to forge a zone outside of time’s intractable hold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Aciman’s latest conveys with grace and insight his longing to apprehend 'myself looking out to the self I am today.' A resplendent collection from a writer who never disappoints.\" —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One feels that if Proust had not existed, Mr. Aciman would have invented him.” —Richard Bernstein, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“André Aciman is, quite simply, one of the finest essayists of the last hundred years.” —Susan Salter Reynolds, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year (2021)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374171872\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40896454557902,"sku":"9780374171872","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_86dcc766-f450-4a80-8c71-580a1d4093eb.jpg?v=1644849652","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374171872","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}